HR Accounts - What do I do now?

In September I received a notice from HR Accounts regarding a debt with the local hospital that I had been paying on.

I sent them a DV Letter on November 9 that went like this.

Dear H and R Accounts,

1. I have just reviewed my credit reports and see you placed derogatory information on them.

2. I dispute this alleged debt in its entirety

3. I request validation pursuant to all applicable local, state, federal and common law.

4. Do not contact me about this matter on the phone, it is inconvenient.

5. I expect proper validation or a deletion of all reporting on my reports within 30 days.

6. Failure to comply will result in me initiating a lawsuit against your company in the state court of Iowa, no exceptions.

I waited two months and received no response although they did update my credit record to show disputed. Based upon some ideas here I sent a money order to the hospital for teh full amount due and they stated that they would not be sending any validaiton info to HR Accounts.

I sent a letter on January 9 that went like this.

To Whom It May Concern:

On November 9 your office received my initial debt validation letter and this was signed for by a Teresa Doak. A copy of the original letter is included along with proof of delivery.

As of this date I have not received any information from your company regarding this debt. Furthermore I have also disputed this debt with the Credit Reporting Agency and you have verified this debt while I disputed it with you. According to my understanding of Credit Law you have committed two violations which can result in my initiating a lawsuit against you. You have failed to respond in a timely manner on the original debt validation and you have failed to update to the credit reporting agencies.

It is my understanding that you must immediately remove this collection trade line from my credit report. Failure to do so will result in a lawsuit by me against your company for failing to follow proper collection, validation, and reporting procedure.

You have 14 days to respond. Failure to respond within 14 days will result in a lawsuit.

Sincerely,

Today I received a letter from HR Accounts that says

In repsonse to your letter received by HR Accounts requesting validation of the above reference account, please be advised that our records indicate:

1. the hospital

2. the account number

3. My name

4. My address

5. Amount due of 0

The above information is provided to validate a debte under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The information to validate teh debt was included on the first notice we sent you on 09/08/2005.

Sincerely

HR Accounts.

Do I have any more options now?

What is my course of action?

Any specific help would be appreciated

On another note is seems as though validation to a collection agency is telling you nothing more than what they put on your credit report. A hospital that I did business with and my name hardly seems to constitute validation.

Thanks

The two violations are:

1 continued collection activity after a timely DV

2 FCRA violation for incorrect reporting

they need to provide the validation from the OC, not simply a copy of what they already have.

I see several problems here.

First of all, on what basis are you disputing the validity of a debt you have been paying on and, if I understand your post correctly, you went ahead and paid in full?

Second, your DV request was not very specific and, based on what I just wrote above, doesn't make a lot of sense...if you ask for "validation" in broad, general terms, then you can pretty much expect to get broad, general information in return (assuming they respond).

Third, if they've been reporting the tradeline prior to receiving your DV, then there is no violation I can see once they've marked the account in dispute.

Finally, now that the account has been paid, it seems to me your real problem is getting the original creditor to tell the CA that the account has been paid and that the CA should back off and of coure, you also have the right to ensure that whatever is reported by either the OR or CA is accurate.

You are right, I didn't see that he had paid. Payment is an effective admission that you agree with the claim.

Here is what I was trying to do.

The clinic where we had our baby does not consolodate that total amount due. So when I paid they applied that to specific accounts and only listed two with HR Accounts.

HR Accounts went ahead and listed these collections on my credit report.

The credit letter I initally sent was given to me in this forum. I was also advised to contact the hospital directly and pay them in full and advise them that there is no permissable purpose under hippa law to release my name and information on a paid account to a third party collection agency. I paid in full directly to the clinic - NOT the collection agency. The website I was told to use was http://whychat.5u.com/hipltr.html

I disputed then with HR and they came back verified although they never responded to my initial letter or contacted the hospital accounts receivable departement. I paid in november and HR Accounts still showed a balance due in December according to my credit report.

When HR initally placed the collection on my report my score dropped over 100 points. Even though it is paid now my score is still 50 -60 points lower than what is was before this mess. I want the entire listing removed off of my credit report since they did not validate with me nor did I pay them nor can they produce any documentation from the clinic. Further more they can't even prove to me that the clinic asked them to collect this debt other than my name and their account number.

I am sick and tired of people placing and doing things to my credit report and I seem to have little recourse. My credit report is full of errors and I work diligently every month to fix but things always come back verified. When it comes to credit reporting anyone can place something on there with ease but getting it removed is a complete nightmare.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this or what I can do now?

Can't I re DV the CA and ask for more proof of a debt other than my typed name and their account number?

If you follow WhyChat's HIPPA process I do not believe you are to contact the CA at all, you are suppose to dispute the TL with the CRA.

When I did that originally it came back verified from the CA who listed it. Do you think I need to just dispute again and see what happens or go after the hospital for continuing to update HR on a paid account which is in violation of the hippa act

H & R Accounts is a thorn in my side too. Do you have an update to this story? I'm on the edge of my seat.

File a law suit. Either do it your self or get an attorney to file. There are attorneys who will take these cases on a contingency and get paid from the CA in the settlement. Go to naca.net or some other site for an attorney if you do not want to do this yourself.

You have two violations. CA's and CRA's are not allowed to break the law. That's true 1) if it's your debt 2) if it's NOT your debt 3) If it's past due or 4) if it's paid in full. All those things have nothing to due with them breaking the law.

Well, the update is this. About two weeks ago I sent a 3rd and final letter telling them to validate. That letter was returned from their office in Illinois. Apparently the forwarding address order expired. I have found a new address in Iowa to send do I am going to do that. We'll see what pans out after that.

I hate HR accounts.